Air traffic control (ATC) centers are used at most airports to coordinate take-offs, landings, and general aircraft traffic around the airport. Traditionally, a pilot uses a radio to speak to an ATC center to request permission or to receive instructions from the ATC center. With increasing air traffic, it has become difficult for ATC centers and pilots to process all of the oral communications with aircraft without error. Consequently, data link applications have been developed to provide textual communications between pilots and air traffic controllers.
One of these data link applications, called Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC), provides for the direct exchange of text-based messages between a controller and a pilot. The CPDLC application enables the pilot to communicate electronically with an ATC center by guiding the pilot through a series of screen configurations or displays that either elicit flight information from the pilot or notify the pilot regarding flight information. The CPDLC application may be part of a larger flight information/control program or may serve as a stand-alone program.
ATC centers deploy data link applications, such as CPDLC and Context Management (CM), which allow the ATC controller and a pilot to communicate via electronic messages delivered through the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN). To have electronic message communication through CPDLC and CM, the pilot must first select an ATC center from a list of available ATC centers using a flight computer. In current CPDLC systems, avionics systems such as a Communication Management Unit (CMU) or a Flight Management Computer (FMC) include interfaces configured to allow pilots and/or flight crews to select the desired ATC center from the list of available ATC centers. There are over 100 ATC centers in the world from which the pilot must select one. Typically, aircraft flight computers have limited resolution displays, complicating the efficient presentation of available ATC centers.
A Human-Machine Interface (HMI) common to many aircraft avionics is the Multifunction Control Display Unit (MCDU). The MCDU has a display area of only 14 lines in height by 24 characters in width. In current applications, the pilot and/or flight crew is required to scroll through the list of available ATC centers to find and select the desired ATC center. In current applications, the ATC centers are listed in the order they are stored in a database. The database is typically static with no hierarchal order or logic to facilitate quick selection. Thus, pilots and/or flight crew are often required to scroll through multiple screens of ATC center lists to find the appropriate ATC center.